Red Flag Software Co., Ltd. (Red Flag Software) was founded by Software Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and NewMargin Venture Capital. The company was focused on the development and marketing of Linux-based operating systems and application software on multiple platforms for the constantly growing base of Chinese technology users.

Zenwalk Linux 4.0 has been released: "The major version number reflects that X11 is updated to version 7.1, which is a structural modification, system wide. All X software packages have been recompiled, including a large amount of software in the ZenCommunity repository. This is the biggest change since the beginning of the Zenwalk project; however, old Zenwalk 3.x and Slackware 11 X-software packages should be compatible with Zenwalk 4.0. This version of Zenwalk uses the new stable 2.6.18.1 kernel. Netpkg has been updated with a new GTK-based user interface - a total rewrite of the software to become one of the most advanced and intuitive network package managers." More details about the changes and updates in Zenwalk Linux 4.0 are available in the release announcement. Download: MD5).

Zenwalk Linux (formerly Minislack) is a Slackware-based GNU/Linux operating system with a goal of being slim and fast by using only one application per task and with focus on graphical desktop and multimedia usage. Zenwalk features the latest Linux technology along with a complete programming environment and libraries to provide an ideal platform for application programmers. Zenwalk's modular approach also provides a simple way to convert Zenwalk Linux into a finely-tuned modern server (e.g. LAMP, messaging, file sharing).

The Zenwalk Linux distribution is a desktop operating system built on the foundation of Slackware Linux. The project has announced a new rolling release snapshot of Zenwalk Linux which carries the version number 220217. The new snapshot reintroduces the Firefox web browser in the default installation and offers a number of updated packages. "The main change is the comeback of Firefox, built with GTK+ 3 and multi-threading enabled by default: This build of Firefox starts and reacts nearly as fast as Chromium, and with many tabs opened: scales much better in terms of responsiveness and memory footprint. You will also notice some improvements around FFmpeg, and MPV which is from now the main media player in Zenwalk. GStreamer has been dropped from ISO but is still available from Slackware repositories. Of course this ISO image contains many updated packages." Additional information can be found in the project's release announcement. Download: zenwalk-current_220217.iso (1,049MB, MD5, pkglist).

Jean-Philippe Guillemin has announced the availability of Zenwalk Linux 8.0, a major new release of the project's Slackware-based distribution with Xfce as the default desktop and a number user-friendly enhancements: "Zenwalk is back after a long development blackout, with the latest best-of-breed software (LibreOffice 5.1.3, Chromium 51, MPlayer 1.3, FFmpeg 3.0.1), the latest Slackware base system featuring the Linux kernel 4.4.14 and a new desktop layout for the user-friendly Xfce 4.12.1. Zenwalk 8.0 is a 'less than 1 GB ISO image' pure Slackware system with added post-install configurations, optimizations and tunings already done out of the box, with a ready-to-use polished desktop environment, added graphical system tools, added office and multimedia applications, and striped to keep just 'one application per task'. Beginning with 8.0, Zenwalk is a 64-bit only Linux distribution. As it is hard to find 32-bits CPUs nowadays, I believe that the old 32-bit architecture is for small specialized systems only, not for the desktop." Read the rest of the release announcement for further details and a screenshot. Download the installation DVD image from here: zenwalk-8.0.iso (989MB, MD5, pkglist).

Jean-Philippe Guillemin has announced that the second release candidate for the upcoming Zenwalk Linux 8.0 is ready for testing: "This is most probably the final release candidate for the upcoming Zenwalk 8.0. This pre-release ISO image should be at 99% the stable target, you will get latest LibreOffice 5.1.3, latest Chromium 51, MPlayer 1.3, FFmpeg 3.0.1, latest Slackware 'Current' system (many upstream packages updated) featuring the Linux kernel 4.4.13, and a new desktop layout for Xfce 4.12. Lately, system tools have been heavily improved to fully integrate Policykit privileges elevation features, enabling the unprivileged user to tweak many system parameters that require root ownership - you can now change your user password from the Xfce panel by just entering your previous password, you can set the X.Org keyboard layout without root privileges, set your locale, set the login manager settings, set system clock. All these features can, of course, be hardened with Policykit to disallow automatic privileges elevation for users." Continue to the release announcement for more information and a screenshot. Download: zenwalk-8.0RC2.iso (986MB, MD5, pkglist).

Jean-Philippe Guillemin has announced a new, and probably final, release candidate for Zenwalk Linux 8.0. The new development snapshot, Zenwalk 8.0 Release Candidate 1, includes improvements from the upstream Slackwre project, including bug fixes for Logitech wireless keyboards, Subversion and Samba. This release also features updates to FFmpeg and MPlayer. "Following the Slackware hopefully final release candidate, here we are for Zenwalk 8.0 RC1. Many upstream bug fixes (Logitech cordless keyboards support, Subversion security fix) and updates (kernel 4.4.7, Samba 4.4.2). Many improvements in Zenwalk system tools to handle per-user settings like locale or HTTP proxy. Latest versions of userland applications: Chromium 49.0.2623.112 and LibreOffice 5.1.2 are also passengers of the wagon. FFmpeg has been updated to 3.0.1, and MPlayer 1.3 seems to be very stable nowadays when built dynamic (sharing FFmpeg libs), so I decided to release it 'dynamic': no more code redundancy." Details and download links can be found in the project's release announcement. Download: zenwalk-8.0rc1.iso (1,012MB, MD5, pkglist).

Jean-Philippe Guillemin has announced the availability of the second beta build of Zenwalk Linux 8.0, a major new update of the project's Slackware-based distribution featuring the Xfce desktop: "Zenwalk 8.0 release is very close - beta 2 is ready now. Beta 2 fixes several minor bugs in Zenwalk's 'z' series of packages and it also provides all beta 2 bug fixes at the Slackware level. As requested by several testers, unprivileged user accounts creation dialog has been added to the setup, prior to the first X login. Also, some reviews let me think that I have to clear something about Zenwalk - Zenwalk *is* and *wants to be* a vanilla Slackware system with very few modifications at the system level. Zenwalk is not much easier to install than Slackware; just easier to setup at the desktop level. Being simpler than the big players, Slackware is already faster and more lightweight than most other Linux operating systems. You won't notice many differences between Zenwalk and Slackware - just a little bit faster to boot, fewer services, optimized SysVInit and a little bit more responsive." Read the rest of the release announcement for more information. Download the installation DVD image from here: zenwalk-8.0beta2.iso (1,009MB, MD5, pkglist).

Jean-Philippe Guillemin has announced the availability of a beta release for the upcoming launch of Zenwalk Linux 8.0. Zenwalk Linux is based on Slackware Linux and it provides its users with the Xfce desktop environment and a focused collection of applications. "The main recent change at user level is Chromium becoming the web browser, serving as well as image gallery viewer and very fast PDF viewer. (As soon as Firefox provides some descent video/Flash support let's see what we do.) The current release is 100% backward compatible with Slackware and is also using a few packages from trusted and serious Slackware contributors like Alien Bob. In 2016 I believe that the web browser is becoming the most important application, and that desktops have to be able to be synced with smart phones." The current beta release is available for the 64-bit x86 architecture exclusively. The final, stable release of Zenwalk 8.0 is planned to follow the next stable release of Slackware. Further information can be found in the Zenwalk 8.0 Beta release announcement. Download: zenwalk-8.0beta.iso (1,007MB, MD5, pkglist).

Sebastian Reisse has announced the release of the "Live" edition of Zenwalk Linux 7.4 (also known as "Zenlive", based on Slackware Linux): "I uploaded the final version of Zenwalk Live 7.4 which has updated OpenSSL packages to fix the Heartbleed issue and some other small fixes. This is the first Zenwalk Live version that is NOT using an Aufs-enabled kernel but instead running Unionfs in userspace via FUSE on an unmodified Slackware generic kernel. It will also be probably the last Zenwalk Live version supporting 32-bit systems and it's going to be very likely the last Zenwalk Live edition that I contribute to the Zenwalk project. Same as in Zenwalk Live 7.2 I decided to feature PAE for supporting more than 4 GB RAM on 32-bit systems, but as a downside Zenwalk Live will not run on Pentium M (which lacks PAE support)." Read the rest of the release announcement for more details. Download link: zenlive-7.4-dvd.iso (845MB, MD5).

Jean-Philippe Guillemin has announced the release of Zenwalk Linux 7.4. This is the project's first stable release since October 2012 and an important update of the Slackware-based desktop Linux distribution with the latest development build of the Xfce desktop. From the release announcement: "The Xfce desktop environment has been updated version 4.12 git, providing a good overview of the upcoming 4.12 final. This intermediate version has been fully tested during four months and the result can already be considered very stable (a few components of the Xfce 4.10 have been kept for stability). Several applications of previous Zenwalk releases have been replaced - MPlayer is now the multimedia player (instead of Totem), LXDM is the display manager (instead of GDM), Xfburn is the CD/DVD burner (instead of Brasero), Geeqie is now the image viewer. As usual most packages have been updated: LibreOffice 4.1.3, GIMP 2.8.10, Firefox 27.0, Thunderbird 24.3.0, Linux kernel 3.10.25 with performance tweaks." Get the new Zenwalk (installation CD image) from here: zenwalk-7.4.iso (661MB, MD5).

After a hiatus lasting just over a year, Jean-Philippe Guillemin has announced a new development release of Zenwalk Linux - the first beta build of the upcoming version 7.4. Zenwalk Linux is a lightweight Slackware-based distribution featuring the Xfce desktop environment. From the release announcement (which includes a screenshot of the default Xfce desktop): "Zenwalk Linux 7.4 beta is ready for testing. In this release you will find: LibreOffice 4.1.1, GIMP 2.8.6, Xfce 4.12git, Thunderbird 24.1.0, Firefox 25.0.1, Linux kernel 3.10.20 with performance tweaks. Several applications from previous Zenwalk releases have been replaced: MPlayer is now the multimedia player (instead of Totem), LXDM is the display manager (instead of GDM), Xfburn is the CD/DVD burner (instead of Brasero), Geeqie is now the image viewer. Have fun and please report bugs." Here is the brief with a screenshot of the default Xfce desktop. Download the installation CD image from the project's main download server: zenwalk-7.4beta1.iso (656MB, MD5).